The Chef's Mail Order Bride: A Sweet Western Historical Romance (Wild West Frontier Brides Book 1) Read Free Page A

children for any length of time, but she had hoped that her nieces would love her immediately. Plenty of time for that, though, she thought as she retrieved her smile when James handed Lucy to her.
    “I’ll go retrieve your bag and we can head to the house.”
    “Oh, yes, I’m sure you would love to have a hot bath. The journey must have seemed endless to you.” Suzanne patted Lily’s back and Sadie awkwardly did the same with Lucy, who seemed to be eyeing her warily but not crying. Sadie was grateful for that.
    “You read my mind. I haven’t had a bath in too long to even think about and I must look a wreck,” Sadie said, looking around the station, curious about her future betrothed.
    “If you’re looking for Tripp, he’s not here,” Suzanne said with a laugh.
    When Sadie frowned, she added, “As you know, he’s a chef, and he wanted to make a special meal for you to celebrate your arrival. The kinds of things he cooks can’t be left unattended, so he stayed back. You’ll get to meet him at dinner.”
    “Oh,” was all Sadie could get out, the butterflies in her stomach now threatening to tickle her throat. “I’m just so…curious.”
    “I’m sure you are. In fact, I was very surprised that you’d even said yes to this sudden proposition.”
    Sadie set Lucy down and held her hand as James returned with her bags. “I believe I surprised everyone, including myself,” she admitted. “If it hadn’t been for losing the bakery, I don’t think that I would have.”
    “Of course you wouldn’t have. That bakery…and baking…is your life. It was just a good time to ask, I guess. And Sadie, I don’t believe you’ll be disappointed. It is a big leap of faith on your part, but we are here for you, and we are very glad to have our family back together.”
    “And with that, let’s get this little family into the buggy and head home,” James said with a smile as he led the way. “Sadie has someone very important to meet.”

Chapter 3
    S adie’s attention roamed periodically as Suzanne explained everything they passed by in the buggy on the way to their house. It wasn’t that she wasn’t interested in her new home town. She was—very.
    But she had hoped that at least meeting her future husband would be over by now, and the more time that she had to wait, the more anxious she became. What would he be like? What would he look like? Would they be a good match? What kind of chef was he? She had to try very hard to concentrate as Suzanne rambled on.
    “Okay, I’ll stop. You’re not listening to me anyway,” Suzanne said with a laugh. “I can’t say I blame you, though. I’d be nervous, too, no matter how many times someone told me that it would be fine.”
    “Thank you for understanding, Suzanne. This is quite a big step, and I really don’t even know the particulars. So I’m a little nervous.”
    “Well, I can put you out of your misery a bit,” James said as he prodded the horses toward home. “Tripp has been a friend of mine for a very long time. He was the cook at the biggest ranch around, the Archer’s, and he came to the mercantile regularly for supplies. There are a lot of ranch hands to feed out there, so he came by quite often. We became fast friends very quickly. He’s a little odd, but very kind.”
    Sadie’s heart fluttered at the word “odd” and Suzanne, who had been watching her intently, said, “Don’t scare her, James. He means that he’s very particular, Sadie. About cooking, and food and how he likes to do it. And the result is outstanding. He’s a very good chef.”
    “Cooking for ranch hands and being a chef are the same things? How particular do you need to be about beef stew?” Sadie said, her stomach sinking.
    She was an expert baker, but really baked by instinct now. She had very few recipes that she followed, and that was only because they were from her mother and grandmother, and she did it to honor them. She clutched her purse that held the little